Talk:Applied linguistics

Article Checklist for "Applied linguistics"

Workgroup category or categories	Linguistics Workgroup [Categories OK]
Article status	External article: from another source, with little change
Underlinked article?	No
Basic cleanup done?	Yes
Checklist last edited by	John Stephenson 03:44, 19 March 2007 (CDT)

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Material from the main Linguistics page

Some of this could be incorporated into the main applied article. John Stephenson 23:40, 6 March 2007 (CST)

Applied linguistics (from Linguistics)

Main article: Applied linguistics

Whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. Often applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline:

• Research in language teaching: today, 'applied linguistics' is sometimes used to refer to 'second language acquisition', but these are distinct fields, in that SLA involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within SLA.

• Applied computational linguistics: two computer applications are speech synthesis and speech recognition, which use phonetic and phonemic knowledge to provide voice interfaces to computers. Machine translation, computer-assisted translation, and natural language processing are fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years.

• Clinical linguistics entails the application of linguistics to speech-language pathology. This involves treating individuals whose linguistic development is atypical or impaired. This branch of applied linguistics may also involve treatment of specific language impairment, where one aspect of language develops exceptionally. The field has also adopted existing ideas which have have not become 'mainstream' in theoretical linguistics. For example, both behaviourism and natural phonology have appeared in the literature.